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#TrustTheCrust: Pesto Palmiers Recipe + Giveaway!

Well here we are, with holiday season is full swing! It has been fun but boy, has it also been busy. This past week, I had six holiday parties in five days. Eesh.

I always love cooking up something for parties and especially using them as an opportunity to try out a new, festive recipe. But then, sometimes life just gets in the way. Case in point: I was all excited to make these Gingerbread and Cookie Butter Rugelach from Hummingbird High for Saturday’s Hanukkah party. However between the party on Friday night, trying to hit the gym Saturday morning to balance out all of my cookie eating and everything else, the time to bake those Jewish cookies just disappeared.

Making puff pastry from scratch has always intimidated me, not to mention it being time intensive. So this is definitely one of the few things I just leave to the professionals.

It is so easy to work with and insanely impressive looking, which means the perfect party item! From “picture frame tarts” filled with roasted squash, veggies and cheese, to cheese twists, puff pastry works wonders.

My go-to on Saturday was a mix of sweet and savory palmiers. These French pastries resemble croissants and are folded in a way that they look like butterflies or leaves. I had assumed they required a hard-to-master technique to roll out. Turns out, that’s not the case! I learned this just a few weeks ago after talking to some of the bakers at Grand Central. Roll out the puff pastry – you don’t even need a rolling pin! – cut into five long rectangular pieces, spread pesto on the dough, top with shredded parm cheese, sprinkle salt and pepper, fold and bake. Simple as that. {Recipe is below!} For the sweet version, I went with fig jam instead of pesto.

They both were buttery, flaky, slightly chewy and also beautiful. This is now a definite go-to for parties.

You can pick up Grand Central’s U-Bake puff pastry (along with their pie dough, pizza dough and other goodies) at any of their bakeries, and also in the freezer aisle at New Seasons. A roll is only $11.25, which is the perfect size for plenty of palmiers or one 12 x 8″ tart.

I’ve got a GIVEAWAY for your own copy of the Grand Central Baking Book plus a $15 gift certificate to any Grand Central Bakery.

Wait a minute, what’s that you say, Erin? Another giveaway, just after you gave away those awesome holiday giveaways?! Heck yes, it is! Why? Because I love you guys so much! 🙂

Defrost the puff pastry overnight in the fridge or on the counter for about 3 hours. Unwrap the dough onto a cutting board or knife-safe counter top (you don’t need a rolling pin to roll out!). Using a sharp chef’s knife, slice into four even 8 x 3″ rectangles.

Spread the pesto evenly over the dough, all the way to the corners. Sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.

Arrange pastry vertically with the 3″ edge facing you. Beginning at the bottom edge fold 1/4 of pastry over to the center. Repeat with the top so that both edges meet in the middle. Compress folded dough. Brush inside edge with egg white and fold again so that the edges meet up like a book. {This Epicurious article is particularly helpful for their photos.} Chill formed dough for at least 20 minutes, or up to overnight.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Cut folded strips into 1/4″ slices. Arrange palmiers on baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes, or until the bottoms begin to brown. Pull baking sheet from oven and quickly flip palmiers over, return to oven for another 6-8 minutes or until they are lightly browned. They might look a little doughy but will crispen up as they cool.

Thank you to Grand Central Bakery for introducing me to your awesome U-Bake puff pastry! I was provided the cookbook and gift card for this giveaway, but was not paid or obligated to write this post. I really love their bakeries, breads, cookbook and their U-Bake products and wanted to share with you all.

Who knew that Palmiers were simple even though they look fancy and hard like croissants! I’m totally into pre-made puff pastry because it’s way too much work fresh and they fall apart, not to mention you realize exactly how much butter is going on and I’m going to block those facts from my reality

Haha! I think that is the other reason I can’t get myself to make puff pastry at home. If I knew how much butter was going on, I might cry. So I choose to live in blissful ignorance while eating my palmiers!